Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

Chapter 21: The Calm before the Storm

Harry spent the rest of the time they were on the road in near silence, only occasionally engaging in conversation when Cathy grew tired and needed the distraction to remain awake. He did a considerable amount of research during that time; listening to the audio files, watching a handful of the videos that he'd been sent, and monitoring the internet for any mention of him or Zechs. He also spent a number of hours researching a magical solution for hiding his wings and keeping them out of the way. He stumbled upon the perfect solution quite by accident when he was explaining the difference between space expansion and one of the hidden pockets that Harry had created in his clothing to hide his knives to Cathy.

The pockets were created by taking actual space and compressing it flat in order to allow an object to be hidden in a relatively small pocket while Notice-Me-Not Charms hid the openings and a Weight Reduction Charm on the actual pocket reduced the weight of whatever was stored inside. Expansion charms on the other hand would take that same amount of space and stretch it out to create extra space within an object or room. Combining the two ideas would give Harry invisible pockets that could potentially hold a vast amount of space inside; space in which he could tuck his wings without risking injury or discomfort while at the same time protecting them from discovery and inadvertent touches.

The difficulty would lay in getting the expansion charm to function with the additional charms without over saturating the fabric with high amounts of magic. He knew it could be done; his trunks were evidence of that since he was easily able to carry thousands of tons of metal around in his money trunk alone; however, wood and metal could both withstand a far higher amount of magic when compared to ordinary fabric.

His research into the new pockets was placed on hold when they reached the transport planes and found all five pilots waiting for them. He didn't waste any time on childish fits or bother holding a grudge because he'd had plenty of time to come to terms with their decision to shelter him just a little. Some of what he'd learned from the files that Wufei had sent him had left him reeling for hours afterwards and if he'd not had nearly four weeks to center his emotions before he read through those reports and watched some of the videos he might have completely flipped. In some ways, the experience was a lesson in maturity for Harry because it made him stop and take a close look at how he'd behaved in the past when faced with unpleasant revelations.

He would go on to spend most of the flight picking Wufei's brain as they sat down and analyzed everything from the reports together. Heero and the others occasionally added their input as well, though as the group's main researcher, Wufei was far better at finding the patterns in the information. Together they were able to determine that OZ hadn't connected the castle wide power failure (including that of the Taurus suits on the grounds) with Harry's escape, blaming it instead on sabotage from someone who had infiltrated their ranks in order to facilitate or take advantage of Harry's desperate flight. (Something that the pilots had actually planned on doing themselves before Harry negated the need for them to do so.)

Harry thought it was stupid of them to not connect the malfunctioning suits at the castle to the malfunctioning suits during the ambush. Wufei pulled up the reports from a pair of suits from both sites and showed Harry the differences in how his magic affected the suits based upon which systems were active at the time they were hit. It was those differences that allowed OZ personnel to overlook and discount the significance of Harry's presence in both instances.

Harry felt distinctly wrung out by the time they finished and he was more than a little surprised when he felt the plane landing not long after they'd shut down their laptops. It was at that point that nervousness invaded Harry as he realized he'd soon have to face the Maganacs and their reactions to the changes he'd undergone in his appearance. His anxiety was readily apparent, and not just to Quatre who could feel how worried he was, and the five pilots glanced at one another before Trowa withdrew a juggling ball from his pocket and bounced it off the back of Harry's head. Harry jumped and turned around to stare wide eyed at Trowa before glancing down at the ball rolling across the floor.

Harry then ended up chasing the normally stoic teen into the cargo hold and down out of the plane, both of them laughing as they occasionally tossed the juggling ball back and forth. They'd just reach the bottom of the ramp when Harry kicked off the ramp, snapped his wings wide to control his short glide, and knocked Trowa down with a flying tackle. He was then treated to his first ever tickle fight that didn't involve spells before the sound of laughter had him looking up in shock as he found Abdul and Rashid watching the pair of them while the rest of the Maganacs serviced the plane. Embarrassed and uncertain, Harry scrambled off of Trowa and blushed as his wings fluttered nervously before he consciously pulled them in tight against his body.

"It is good to see you in good health and good humor, Master Harry," Rashid stated warmly as he reached out to give Trowa a hand up off the ground. "We were worried about you when we first learned of your injuries and then later of your kidnapping."

"I missed everyone here, too," Harry replied with a shy smile. "I learned some new knife tricks though and had fun performing in front of the crowd while we were with the circus. I wish you guys could have seen us."

"I'm certain you stole the show every time you walked into the ring," Abdul hypothesized as he walked up and briefly ruffled Harry's hair.

Harry flinched at the touch and tensed for a split second before he relaxed and smiled up at the man (the touch brief enough that it didn't leave Harry feeling threatened). His worry about their reactions faded as he chatted with the two men while the Gundams were off loaded along with the cages containing the snakes. Harry earned quite a bit of ribbing from the various adults about collecting more snakes that he laughed off as he crawled into Beauty's cage to sooth the agitated python (she wasn't overly fond of flying).

He'd just barely finished calming her down when he recalled Seth and he let out a startled gasp before he took off running. By the time the others caught up with him to find out what was wrong, they found Harry cringing on the floor of his bedroom on his knees in front of a looming and exceedingly pissed off Seth. Harry wasn't actually afraid of the snake nor was the snake even considering harming Harry; Seth was merely scolding Harry and giving the winged wizard a tongue lashing of a lifetime for worrying the cobra. Once it was determined that Harry was in no danger from his legless friend, the others left him to sooth the irritated reptile while they helped move their suits into the underground hanger.

A couple of days later, Quatre gave Harry permission to turn an empty suite of rooms into a snake house for all of his tagalongs when it became apparent that the local environment too harsh for the forest and jungle dwelling creatures and that their current accommodations weren't adequate enough to protect them from the heat. Harry used the opportunity to master using the expansion charm, which he'd previously only used on a limited basis when adding space in the multi-layered venomous snake habitat and on the area beneath the cot inside of the dungeon cell he'd been kept in during his time with OZ.

When he finished transforming the pair of interconnected rooms; the new rooms gave one the impression that they were walking into a whole new world or stepping into a piece of nature that had been preserved. The snakes were extremely pleased to say the least; Beauty most especially as Harry had taken extra care in creating her habitat with an eye for acquiring a couple of companions for her so she wouldn't be quite so lonely (what with her being the only tropical snake currently in Harry's mismatched collection).

It only took a week for Harry to settle back into the familiar routine he'd established back before the disastrous ambush staged by OZ. In that time he'd also successfully created a shirt that would hide all traces of his wings without irritating or injuring them after eight failed attempts. He'd quickly found that he had to use button up shirts that were comprised of at least two layers so that he had an enclosed space within which to create the expanded pocket and because a pullover-shirt, unless exceedingly baggy, tended to catch on his wings.

He then had to apply strengthening charms to the fabric before he could apply the compression charm to create the initial pocket between the layers in order to prevent the shirt from being torn apart by the expansion charm. He'd wanted to add a warming charm too but the one time he tried caused the shirt he'd been working on to disintegrate the moment he applied the expansion charm (which always had to be done last).

Once he'd been successful in creating a working wing pocket, Harry found that he couldn't layer the new shirt with more than two or three of the hidden pockets designed to hold his knives and throwing cards on top of the expanded space for his wings since the over-saturation of magic would cause the shirt to disintegrate. To solve the conflict and still maintain a larger number of the hidden pockets, Harry took to wearing a skin tight long sleeve shirt that had been modified to accommodate his wings (meaning it was mostly backless with a Velcro strap attached to the back to hold the bottom of the shirt in place) that he lined with close to two dozen hidden pockets. Over top of that he'd wear a loose button up shirt spelled with two expanded pockets; one to hide his wings and the second, smaller one hidden inside the fold down collar of the shirt to provide any of the snakes traveling on his person a safer place to hide.

Just as he'd needed to get used to moving and walking with the weight and presence of his wings, Harry had needed a few days to adjust to the change in his equilibrium when the wings were hidden from sight. Once he could walk without tripping over his own feet because he misjudged his center of gravity; Harry began practicing with his knives once more (now that his wings were no longer in danger of getting injured if he made a mistake).

It didn't take Harry very long to learn how to adjust his technique to incorporate the changes that had been made to his body. In fact, Harry quickly noticed that his movements were far more fluid and that he'd gained a measure of flexibility beyond what he'd had previously; another trait that he suspected had bled over from the magical venom that he still believed had been in his blood at the time of his change. His other training with the pilots and the Maganacs helped as well; strengthening his body and his awareness of his body both with and without his wings hidden.

During his second week back, Harry started to learn how to drive a handful of various vehicles. Cathy made good on her promise to teach him how to drive her truck, Duo began teaching him how to drive a smaller motorbike (Sirius's bike still too large and heavy for him to drive alone), and Trowa began teaching him how to fly the numerous planes they'd acquired (starting with the smallest). Wufei started teaching him the basics of sword fighting and teaching him the proper pronunciation of the Chinese language so that Harry could not only use the written characters in warding but speak and read it as well.

Quatre introduced Harry to the joys and pains of English literature and taught him the proper way to write essays (something that he'd only learned the bare basics of when still attending public school and that Hogwarts hadn't really taught him despite the fact that all of his professors had required him to write essays). Heero, on the other hand, continued building upon the lessons he'd been giving Harry in piloting mobile suits. Part of that involved an attempt to toss Harry into the cockpits of the Alliance suits he'd helped steal with magic months earlier in order to allow Harry to be able to pilot any suit he came across. Harry had balked over the mere idea of piloting those particular suits for a full hour until Heero asked him flat out why it mattered which suit he learned in.

That led to Harry reluctantly explaining about what he sensed when he touched or climbed inside of the various suits and how the cold, alien hostility he felt emanating from the Alliance and OZ suits made him feel ill. He'd gone on to timidly admit that one of the reasons he felt so comfortable with all five pilots and a lesser extent the Maganacs was because their suits radiated warmth and security. As a compromise (in order to train Harry in a suit other than one of the Gundams), Heero and the other pilots (after much debate) gave Harry the Taurus suit that he'd warded since it was the only one of the captured suits that the winged teen felt even remotely comfortable around (thanks to his wards and the spells he'd cast on it countering the cold hostility) and Abdul gave him lessons in operating the various suits of the Maganac Corps.

To further separate the warded Taurus from the OZ suits, the once purple suit was painted black with gold and silver highlights and all of the external light panels on the suit (such as the yellow panel on the head) were changed over from yellow to green. Inside, the pilot's chair had been modified to account for Harry's short and petite stature (though he was no where near as small as he had been previously) and designed to swivel from left to right to make it easier for him to reach the various control panels inside the suit. The extra space created by moving the seat allowed for them to install a pair of passenger seats behind the pilot's chair so that Harry could transport other people or equipment as needed (the cockpit of the Taurus suits being far smaller than that of the Gundams). Harry had gone on to christen the newly revamped suit Dogstar, once he'd seen the new paint job, in honor of his godfather.

Right after agreeing to the compromise that Heero offered, Harry used the absorption spell to learn every thing he could about the suit; including committing to memory everything he'd stolen from OZ about the Taurus suits while he had been held captive. With his newfound familiarity with the suit's many systems, Harry was able to focus his training lessons on learning how to maneuver the suit as an extension of himself. This included learning how to walk, fight, and fly in both flight and suit mode. Heero hadn't been surprised when Harry's reckless daring on a broom translated into reckless daring while in the air inside of the suit and his stunts often left more than one of his watchers and co-pilots looking a bit green around the gills.

After getting comfortable with piloting the suit, Harry began making further modifications to the machine with his magic. The first thing he did was counter the negative affects high speeds usually inflicted upon the pilot (and passengers); making it far easier to maneuver and pull off some of his crazier stunts without the risk of internal damage. Using Sirius's notes, Harry had integrated an invisibility booster and a silencing ward into the suit in addition to a temperature masking charm so that, much like Sirius's motorcycle, he could completely vanish from sight and scanners (both visual and thermal).

The protective spells and wards woven into the suit not only protected it from enemy fire but from the elements as well and increased the comfort of the pilot by regulating the temperature both inside and outside of the suit (the temperature spell on the outside linked to the masking spell that hid the heat generated by the suit), maintaining a steady supply of oxygen in the cockpit, and reducing the amount of turbulence the pilot experiences in case of a crash or a direct hit; each spell woven into the system that performed the same task so that the two worked together to better perform their designated function.

Duo and Trowa helped Harry to design a set of knives for Dogstar that could be superheated like Sandrock's shotel and were easily thrown. Eight of the blades were stored in a pair of magically hidden compartments on the outer thighs of the suit while another eight were stored in similar compartments on the inside of the forearms. The pair of beam swords created for the suit (one of which was originally intended as a spare) were modeled after the wakizashi blade Wufei had given him and fairly unique among suit weapons because they could be combined to form a twin bladed staff in addition to being wielded separately. The swords were stored on the outer forearms of Dogstar when not in use.

Originally, they were going to add a shield to the suit as well but ended up discarding the shield since the protective wards and spells negated the need and Harry's fighting technique was two-handed since he mostly used his knives and not the swords (which the presence of a shield would seriously hamper). The final change to Dogstar's weaponry was the replacement of the beam rifle with a pair of compact beam pistols which were far easier for Harry to operate and aim and stored in special compartments on the suit's hips.

Inside, Harry added several storage cupboards along the back wall and floor; one for food, one for handheld weapons, one for holding extra ammunition for the suit's projectile weapons and spare weapon parts, one for medical supplies, one for tools and spare suit parts, and one to hold general supplies and survival equipment. He even added in a small terrarium so that he could transport a couple of snakes safely inside the suit (at Seth's insistence). The icing on the cake though was the small bathroom complete with working shower, sink, and toilet that he added after Duo had made a sarcastic comment about Harry trying to turn the mobile suit into a mobile home.

Once finished, Harry thought the suit was even better than the magical tent he'd stayed in during the Quidditch World Cup before his forth year; if only because it could fly.

The final magical modification he made to the suit was to design and install a magical amplifier that would allow him to use magic outside of the suit while piloting it (one of the problems he'd discovered the day of the ambush had been that it took far too much power and concentration to move his spells through the suit). It had required the door to the cockpit to be completely redesigned but it had been worth it to be able to cast spells while on the battlefield.

Set into the middle of the new door, was a large star cut diamond (one with multiple flaws marring the clarity of the gem) and more than three times the normal number of facets cut into the lower girdle of the diamond giving it the appearance of a hazy starburst set in the shape of a five pointed star (roughly two and a half inches in diameter from the tips of the five points and fairly shallow cut). The diamond was set in a section of Gundanium that Duo had procured through Howard that Harry had covered with a series of intricately carved amplification, strengthening, stabilizing, and protective runes which he'd painted with his blood. On the underside of the diamond, where it came into contact with the door, there was a hole drilled into the gem just large enough to snugly fit the first half inch of Harry's wand tip into.

Once the diamond amplifier was set into the new door, that small pocket sat directly over an open tunnel in the door that would allow Harry to insert his wand through the door in order to place it in direct contact with the amplifier. The small tunnel was sheathed in another section of Gundanium with the same runes inscribed inside and out and snug enough that there would be no gap between the alloy and the wood of Harry's wand once it was slipped into place. The shape and number of facets of the diamond allowed Harry to use spells that could affect a rather large area in addition to more traditional spells that affected a specific target depending on how much magic he pushed into his spells.

While the various training and projects Harry was working on filled up most of his time, he still found time to worry about his unwanted stalker as he continued to monitor Zechs' ongoing search for him. Apparently the man was currently tracking down every single circus troupe and searching their tents and trailers for a boy prodigy that could handle knives and charm snakes. This was after the man had combed through the orphanages and homeless shelters of mainland Europe and Japan (since he had correctly deduced that Harry had first shown up on the island nation – even if he was off by nearly two years on his timing).

It worried Harry that the man was turning out to be just as obsessive as Voldemort in his pursuit of Harry. The thing that bothered him the most though was the fact that Harry still had absolutely no idea why the man was so determined to chase him down whereas Harry had known Voldemort just wanted to kill him.

Near the middle of Harry's third week back, Trowa, Cathy, and Harry were talked into performing their act for everyone now that Harry had been able to regain the coordination he'd lost after his change. It took an entire day to set the courtyard up for the show, since they had to build all of the props from scratch because their original ones had been lost or left behind after Harry had been taken by Treize.

Harry was as nervous as he'd been the first time he'd stepped into the ring to perform in front of the crowd but Trowa put him at ease by walking up and playfully bouncing an extra juggling ball off Harry's head before poking him in the side. After that Harry had no problem falling into his role as the clumsy kid stumbling into the ring by accident. There was a brief moment when Harry nearly panicked after the snakes carried him into the crate when he temporarily got caught between the memory of the day Treize had separated him from Trowa and the present; but Seth (who had chosen to take part in the show) snapped him out of it with a sharp hiss of rebuke.

Once that part of the show was over, Harry showed off a few of the card tricks that Cathy had helped him learn. He also revealed the deadly deck of cards he'd created for the first time, demonstrating his ability to juggle two thirds of the flimsy looking cards before shocking everyone into silence by using the cards to completely demolish one of the wooden target boards that had been set up for the knife throwing demonstration. Harry then sat back to watch some of the Maganacs perform acrobatics and show off a few of their own new tricks.

Wufei and Heero demonstrated their swordsmanship with a rather heated sword fight that left Harry slightly breathless at how close they'd come to injuring one another. Quatre and Trowa had a bit of a musical battle next, the two of them trying to make each other trip up as they played more and more complicated pieces that clashed and harmonized in turns. And finally, Heero and Duo had a shooting competition to see who could hit the dead center of the target the most number of times consecutively with Trowa joining in at the last second and beating them both. Overall, the night's activities had been fun and left Harry feeling far more content than he had felt in a long time.

Sadly, the peace and contentment wasn't to last as breaking news the next day had the first Colony (which happened to be L3) renouncing the Gundam pilots and throwing their lot in with OZ. Treize had apparently sent Lady Une into space after she'd recovered from the injuries she'd received during Harry's escape and she'd been just as ruthless in dealing with Alliance troops out in space as she had been in attacking Harry's fears. She also proved that she was just as adept at portraying herself as the epitome of a peace loving delegate as she wooed the various Colony leaders around to OZ's way of thinking.

The news was devastating for the five pilots because they'd risked everything in order to protect the Colonies and to have the Colonies start turning their backs on them now nearly broke them. That was when Harry found himself in a role reversal of sorts where it was him trying to protect and comfort the pilots and help them cope with the betrayal. The five of them had immediately wanted to take off into space to confront OZ and beat sense into the Colonies and it took all of Harry's Slytherin instincts to talk sense into them.

He wasn't opposed to taking the fight out into space, because he could understand the reasoning behind such a move, what he did oppose was the pilots running off and going their own separate ways without a solid plan and leaving him alone. Once he had gotten through their anger, disgust, and hurt, Harry got them to work together to create a viable plan, prepare their cover stories, and secure their transportation out into space.

The first thing they realized was that, while Harry had been able to improve the Gundams using his magic, the suits were ill-equipped for space travel and space battle. The Tauruses on the other hand were ideal as they had been designed specifically to engage in combat in the vacuum of space. They only had three of the Taurus suits on hand though and one of them was Harry's; so they made plans to steal another three suits and a space shuttle.

While Wufei and Quatre did research to find out where they could get both the suits and the shuttle, Harry warded the two remaining Taurus suits they had on hand with the help of Trowa and Heero while the Maganacs and Duo made some of the same upgrades and slight modifications that they'd put into Dogstar to the suits. When their target had been located, mapped, and the security of the base analyzed; Heero, Trowa, and Wufei set about planning their theft. Harry crashed that meeting and told them that they needed to keep the entire thing far more low key than their current plans so as to avoid the theft being traced back to the pilots. He then presented them with his ideas (including the part he would be playing) before leaving them to their plotting while he finished applying the magical upgrades to the two newly warded suits.

Those included protective wards, the magical stealth capabilities (with power absorption and storage runes so the squib-level pilots could use them without requiring Harry's presence), the stabilizing spells to prevent internal damage at the higher speeds, and the extra storage space (including bathrooms, passenger seating, and a fold out bed – something he also added to Dogstar after designing the first one). The last thing he did to all three suits was add a defensive shock ward that would electrocute anyone who wasn't tied into the ward before he tied all five of the pilots, Cathy, and all of the Maganacs into the ward with a combination of blood (theirs mixed with his) and magic.

The night they snuck in to steal the suits and shuttle, Harry piloted Dogstar on his first official mission as an actual pilot with Heero and Trowa riding shotgun behind him in the passenger seats. Wufei and Quatre were standing by in their Gundams to cover their retreat should anything go wrong and Duo was piloting their ride in and out. With the magical stealth mode activated, Harry landed Dogstar gently beside the space port's hanger where the passenger shuttles were stored. Heero then slipped out wearing Harry's invisibility cloak and a temperature regulating charm that would hide him from both the surveillance cameras and the heat sensors to disable the security on the hanger doors and open them so that Harry could slip inside with Dogstar.

"All clear, kid; go ahead and slip Dogstar through the door."

"Roger that, Hee-man," Harry replied (using Duo's nickname for Heero in retaliation for the teen calling him kid again - even if it didn't bother him as much as it had before) as he ducked down and passed beneath the half raised door before bringing the suit back into a standing position while Heero closed the door to hide their activity.

Harry then slipped out of his harness and grabbed his Firebolt as he opened the cockpit door, he'd be shrinking and lightening one shuttle while Trowa striped a second for parts in order to replace any components damaged by Harry's magic in the first shuttle. Heero, in the mean time, would keep watch for security patrols passing through the area and make certain that the security cameras played a continuous loop of the footage from the hour prior to their break in.

Harry carefully flew himself and Trowa down to the ground (something he'd practiced for several times before they left the Estate so that he felt confident in carrying a passenger) and allowed the teen to choose which shuttle they'd be commandeering parts from. He then dropped the green-eyed teen off beside the shuttle before allowing Heero to verbally guide him to a shuttle that had just been prepared for flight and recently fueled. Ten minutes later, Harry was ferrying their new shuttle up into Dogstar where he promptly fixed it to the wall with a sticking charm; being unable to place the shrunken shuttle inside of the storage cupboards because the shrinking charm would destabilize the expansion charm.

Harry then dropped back down to help Trowa transfer the spare parts into the suit's storage before picking Trowa up and letting Heero know they were finished with phase one of their operation. Phase two saw the three of them performing a similar retrieval from the base's mobile suit hanger where close to two hundred Taurus suits were awaiting shipment into space. Harry ended up stealing a total of ten suits before helping Trowa gather plenty of spare parts and circuit boards from several more suits.

Once they had everything they needed, Harry initiated phase three while Trowa moved Dogstar out of the hanger. Phase three involved Harry sabotaging all of the mobile suits and dolls with his magic (rigging the suits so that they would explode the moment they were exposed to the harsh conditions of space) in order to cripple OZ's presence in space. Harry then joined Heero, slipping beneath the cloak as Heero climbed on the broom behind him before reengaging the security system for the hanger and disrupting the one for the pilots' locker room.

Together, they slipped into the locker room and stole nearly all of the spacesuits and much of the other gear laying around by simply dumping everything into Harry's supply trunk. Harry then flew them out of the building after Heero reengaged the cameras and the two of them rejoined Trowa in Dogstar before slipping out of the base much as they'd slipped in; silent and unseen.

"Mission complete; ten minutes to rendezvous," Harry announced through the radio as he buckled himself in and initiated Dogstar's flight mode as he pointed the nose towards the sky.

"Read ya loud and clear, kiddo; watch your back as ya pull out, there are three squads of Aries patrollin' da sky," Duo replied back cheerfully.

"Understood; leaving stealth mode engaged."

Ten minutes later, Harry was gliding the still invisible Dogstar into the open cargo bay doors of the plane Duo was flying as naturally as if he'd been flying mobile suits all of his life. Setting the suit down gently, Harry canceled the stealth charms and shut down the engines before jumping out of the cockpit and setting about securing the suit in place while Heero closed the bay door. Trowa joined them a few minutes later and the three of them grinned at each other before they headed up to the passenger section of the plane to strap themselves into their seats; Heero joining Duo in the cockpit.

"Ten suits Harry? I thought we were only grabbing three," Trowa remarked dryly with a touch of amusement.

"We can never have enough spare parts," Harry cheekily replied. "They'll find themselves a little short on spacesuits as well."

"Oh, do tell; how many suits did you and Heero nab in those eight minutes?"

"I didn't keep count but I know we managed to get all but a small handful on top of a bunch of other gear they had lying around within easy reach. I could have sworn I saw Heero collecting a ton of handheld beam guns too."

"I can't believe we've completely corrupted you in the short time we've known you."

"Nah… I was never as innocent as I looked," Harry quipped back with a grin. "I was smuggling dragons, destroying priceless artifacts, brewing controlled substances, infiltrating enemy lines, and helping escaped convicts long before I met you five."

"Well, when you put it that way…"

"Yeah… exactly… I mean all you guys did was encourage me to steal classified information, play with sharp objects, and break into government facilities."

"You are an incorrigible brat, you know that?"

"Ah, I can't be incorrigible… I'm too adorable; Cathy said so."

"Says the kid who just robbed an OZ space port of close to a billion dollars worth of equipment and sabotaged another couple billion," Trowa deadpanned.

"Hey, if I recall correctly, you were right there with me helping me steal all that equipment."

"You're point?"

Harry couldn't help but start snickering at that point over the silliness of them nitpicking on which of them were actually responsible for Harry's new life as a not-so-petty-thief. The knowledge that they'd pulled off the heist without any mishaps only made Harry laugh louder as the pent up stress he'd been feeling since the start of the mission melted away. Knowing they all made it out without any one getting hurt and without getting caught left him feeling giddy as his laughter took on a slightly hysterical edge. Eventually, Harry crashed hard as the adrenalin that had carried him through the night's activities wore off and he slumped against Trowa as he fell asleep.

In the end, stealing the mobile suits, space shuttle, and spacesuits was a cake walk compared to what needed to be done once they'd hauled their loot home. The mobile suits needed to be repaired, warded, and upgraded, the spacesuits needed to be cleaned, checked for damage, and warded against Harry's magic, and the space shuttle needed to be repaired, warded, and refitted magically in order to transport the mobile suits.

Harry was run ragged during that time as he siphoned off pint after pint of blood for the warding, revised the ward scheme to function with the spacesuits (to better protect the wearer from the harsh conditions of space), and altered the ward scheme further so that it could be used to ward the shuttle (in order to make certain the wards would hold up under the stress and heat caused when entering and existing the atmosphere). The others didn't have an easy time of things either as they carved thousands of runes, worked tirelessly to repair the new mobile suits and the shuttle, and scrambled about gathering any other supplies and equipment they would potentially need while out in space.

As each pilot customized their new mobile suits to better fit their individual strengths, Harry conspired with the Maganacs over the details added to the new paint jobs and the new names for each of the suits. All of them, like Dogstar, were painted black with gold and silver highlights with subtle differences that allowed them to be easily told apart; if you knew what to look for. To start with, the optic panels and external lights on each suit were a different color; Heero's were white, Duo's were red, Trowa's were orange, Quatre's were blue, and Wufei's were purple. The silver and gold highlights added to each suit formed what looked like a star when seen from a distance with each star taking on a slightly different pattern when the suit converted to flight mode.

The names designated for each suit kept to the theme that was started with Harry's; each of them having 'star' as part of the name. Heero's was called Northstar; Harry seeing the formerly cold teen as his guiding light since Heero had led Harry to the other pilots and ultimately his new family (even if it had taken him a long time to realize that). Duo's new suit was dubbed Deathstar since Harry knew the name would appeal to the self-named shinigami and the reference to the movie Star Wars amused Harry even though the pilots never quite got the reference.

Trowa's was the hardest one for Harry to name but in the end he settled on Superstar since Trowa played a variety of roles in Harry's life and he was a talented performer both inside and outside of the ring. Quatre's new suit became Rockstar, the empathic pilot the one that gave them all strength and in some ways held them together despite their differences (the name also a reference to Quatre's love of music). Finally, Wufei's new suit was given the name Dragonstar as Harry now likened the quietest of the pilots to a sleeping dragon that inspired fear in his enemies when roused into battle once he'd gotten to know the teen better (instead of the proud hippogriff he'd seen him as before).

The number designations for the pilots and their new suits remained the same as for their Gundams. There was some debate over the number that Harry's suit should be given, a few thinking his should be Zero-Zero and the others wanting to give him the number Zero-Six. Harry shook his head and told them that his number designation was One-Three which confused the five pilots until Harry explained that it was a magically significant number associated with luck (most often bad luck much like his godfather's animagus form that was often mistaken for a grim which is who his suit was named after). Zero-Seven was also a magically powerful number but Harry didn't feel comfortable using such a significant number; he thought it too arrogant but couldn't say where the feeling came from.

Along with the new number designation, Harry was instructed to pick out a code name. He considered using the name Myrddin Emrys in reference to the famed wizard most knew as Merlin but again Harry felt that would be far too arrogant. Eventually, he settled on the name Taliesin Bard*; a rather famous bard of Welsh origin that was also a well known wizard (in the magical world) and considered by some to be a seer and a prophet. His reasoning for choosing that name stemmed from the legend that baby Taliesin had been pulled from a weir by Elffin ap Gwyddno who later adopted the babe.

Like the Taliesin of legend, Harry's new life had started when he emerged from the water (or maybe when he pulled Heero from the sea) though there were obvious differences in their situations it was close enough that it struck a chord with Harry and at the same time offered him a small connection to his lost heritage.

Outside of the estate, people were beginning to sit up and take notice of the large scale thefts that were occurring on OZ facilities around the globe. The space port being merely the first of many bases hit as the Gundam pilots plus Harry stole food, medical equipment, munitions, explosives, firearms, tools, survival equipment, and blueprints for all of the former Alliance space facilities that OZ had taken over (including satellites, spaceships, and space stations). OZ officials were convinced that the culprits were Alliance rebels (led by one Major Sally Po) that were scattered across the globe.

Zechs Merquise was one of the few individuals who did not believe the rebels were responsible for the large scale thefts; if only because the rebels tended to leave a large swath of destruction in their wake when they struck. Zechs, in fact, quickly linked the mysteriously vanishing equipment and supplies with one child's uncanny ability to seemingly obtain equipment and supplies from out of thin air. Once he had made that connection, he quickly gathered a complete list of everything that had been stolen to date and easily deduced that the one or ones responsible were looking to enter space.

Knowing the child pilot he sought was linked with the Gundams and that the Gundams were currently being denounced by the Colonies led Zechs to the theory that the Gundams were looking to retaliate either against the Colonies or against OZ; possibly both. The insatiable curiosity that drove him to understand what motivated the child and the inexplicable need he felt to protect the child at the same time saw Zechs making his own preparations to head out into space.

Harry in the mean time continued to push himself to the limits, completely unaware that his strange stalker intended to follow him into space. If not for the vast stores of potions that Sirius had meticulously collected and stored Harry probably would have never survived the three weeks it took to get everything ready. A small part of Harry worried over the number of potions he'd gone through since stumbling into the pilots but he ignored it because he still had a decent supply remaining (Sirius had raided the Hogwarts Infirmary and Snape's potion stores in addition to what the elves had taken from other sources upon his orders).

By the time he'd sealed the last rune with his blood and cast the final protective spell on the space shuttle, Harry was physically, mentally, and magically exhausted. When Heero finally got a good look at how worn down Harry was, he bustled the shorter teen off to bed and ordered him to rest for two days while the rest of them finished packing their supplies and equipment for the trip. Harry didn't even have the strength to protest being treated like a kid; he simply fell into bed and slept for thirty-six hours straight.

The long nap went a long way towards restoring Harry's health and he moved with renewed energy once he was allowed out of bed. He was also radiating nervous anticipation and barely restrained excitement as the day of their departure quickly drew near. The night before their scheduled pre-dawn flight out of the atmosphere found Harry standing out in the middle of the courtyard staring up at the stars with Seth coiled loosely around his neck.

"Everything alright, Harry?" Heero inquired when he stumbled across the young wizard unexpectedly after making a last minute check of their supplies.

"Yeah, I'm fine; just thinking."

"About what?"

"Stars and space; did you know that man had barely begun to explore space where I came from?"

"I remember you were completely shocked, surprised, and more than a little skeptical to find out that there were millions of people living out in space when I first mentioned the Colonies."

"Space travel was still pretty much nothing but science fiction to me back then so the concept that people had been living in space for two hundred years was startling. No less strange than giant robots that fell from the sky," Harry replied dryly before he gave a snort of amusement and looked away from the stars to meet Heero's gaze. "You know what's ironic?"

"What?"

"The falling star I thought I wished on that day was actually you entering the atmosphere in Wing. I didn't even realize it until Duo and Quatre had me going over the procedures for entering and exiting the atmosphere last week. I wished on a Gundam for a purpose and the fates sent me the pilot of the Gundam I wished upon."

"Do you have any regrets?"

"A few here and there but mostly I just wish I could tell my godfather how much I love him and let him know that I forgive him for sending me away."

"I'm certain he already knows."

"Maybe…"

Notes:

*Taliesin – the story of Taliesin is a little too complex to summarize here and I recommend checking out Wikipedia if you want to know more about him and the legends that surround him. The little info I gave in the story is accurate based upon that same information though extremely watered down with little detail; obviously. I know some have believed that Taliesin and Merlin were in some way related or possibly one and the same but I couldn't say whether or not there is any truth in that.

Personally I've always liked the name and the legend and I thought it would be nice to use a name that I've only seen appear once in an HP FanFiction before. I used artistic license to call him a wizard and a seer though; tucking him into the HP universe much like JKR tucked Merlin, Flamel, and a bunch of other historical or mythological figures into her world. Oh, and the name Bard was a not quite random last name I picked out of a hat since the Taliesin of history was a bard by occupation; not because that was historically his last name.

AN: Short chapter when compared to the last two but there was quite a bit going on. We see more of Harry's maturity and we see his lessons moving up to the next level with the pilots acknowledging his skills in gifting him with the Taurus Suit that he'd warded. Part of that had to do with the fact that he'd already been linked to the Gundams due to his own actions during the ambush and allowing him to take a bigger role couldn't possibly paint a larger target on his back than the one he already had. For now, our boys are headed out to space to wreck havoc.

We also see Une being finally sent into space. The reason she wasn't sent directly at the end of the ambush was because her ruthlessness was deemed necessary due to the fallout of the survival of the delegates from the New Edwards Base sequence and the lack of progress OZ had in subjugating the rest of the world because of that. The delay could be viewed as directly being a result of Harry's presence as the ripples are finally getting large enough to be seen.

One question… what is Une's first name? All of the research I did led me to believe that her first name was Lady instead of Lady being some kind of polite title she was given; hence the reason why I've called her Lady Une instead of Colonel or whatever her military title is (can't remember it off the top of my head). Even after watching the Anime again I couldn't determine anything different than what I'd gotten from the Wiki site.

Stalker boy… gotta love Zechs' obsession. He was obsessed with Heero in canon but only because of Heero's status as the pilot of Wing; which Harry supplanted here through a fluke because of his relationship with all five pilots. We'll get a look at things from Zechs' point of view around chapter twenty-five so I won't say anything more about it here.

Those of you who are hoping for a Harry/Cathy pairing… I'll apologize now. I considered it but she met him when he looked like an eight year old and she set herself up as a mother/big sister during his time at the circus. He is close to her though and she'll remain close to him and to the other pilots; even if she isn't there in all of their adventures.

Only one more thing to address and then I'll let you go; Harry's lack of hexing for being called kid/kiddo after all of his earlier protests and irritation. I briefly hinted at it in this chapter and it gets addressed in more detail later but because its come up in a review or two and in a few PMs I thought I'd comment here. Harry has begun to see kid/kiddo as a term of affection rather than the insult he originally believed it to be; previously equating it to being called boy or freak – which was why he protested previously. And while Duo promised not to call him kiddo again, Duo has already admitted that calling everyone nicknames as a long ingrained habit and he just can't help himself. Plus he does like to push people's buttons just to get a reaction out of them. =)

Anyway, I've started answering reviews and will try to get to the rest of them soon and keep my fingers crossed that I don't accidentally skip anyone. Next chapter will be up Tuesday or Wednesday and Haunted will have another chapter up tomorrow. Chaos is being edited and cleaned up so I can fix a few issues with the sequel, and I'm almost finished with cleaning up the first chapter of Wizard's World Year 2 so I can start posting that. I also have to finish the third part of the Discovering series so I can get that posted. Those three series will be my focus once I've finished with Haunted and this story. ~ Jenn